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I read that the Defender was pulled from the US 20 years ago because it could not pass US safety certification. I wonder if the new Jimny has what it takes. But Suzuki has retreated from the US completely so I doubt it is in the works.

Curious to see what the new Defender will be like. Hope it does come back.

That would be great but they sell more vehicles by going softer and a move in the direction you suggest would be retrograde in their eyes and moving into direct competition with Suzuki. It's highly unlikely.

Last edited by Kevin; 20th June 2018 at 01:02 AM.
Reason: Unnecessary use of "Quote"

As for traction control, I think x-mode makes VDC pretty aggressive and that's about all it makes sense to do without changing other aspects of the vehicles, specifically the awful angles. If you look at 4WD action and Graham's D-Max, his traction control seems pretty basic to me. He spins like my Outback used to and is nowhere in the same league of my current 4Runner, in spite of enjoying low range which my OB lacked. Then again, like the 4WD action D-Max and unlike pre-2010 Subarus, my OB powered on in all sorts of conditions where a non-VDC model would have been stopped.

As for Suzuki and Subaru, there can be no direct competition as they build completely different vehicles. Other than that, I don't think Subaru would worry about Suzuki. The trajectories of the two companies diverged completely ca. 2010.

2017 Suzuki Australia sales: around 20,000. Subaru around 50,000.
2017 Suzuki US sales: 0 vehicles. Subaru: 650,000. Make it over 700,000 in 2018.

2017 combined Aussie and US sales: 20,000 to 700,000. Subaru is no longer a niche player.

More to the point, Subaru did just develop their biggest and priciest vehicle ever for the US market. But they won't build a small, low-margin vehicle for a small market. Subaru is already eroding the US 4x4 market by offering all the capability that 90% of the people who want to be outdoors (as opposed to doing 4wheeling as a sport) really want or need. The others will want/need more than what a Subaru can offer (me) and the Jeep/Toyota/US truck crowd is a world of its own. Not even Nissan could make a dent there. Nissan had an outstanding model with excellent execution between 2011 and 2015 yet once the Wrangler stopped being made of random parts, it drove that one AND Toyota's FJ cruiser out of the market in just three years, 2012-5.

In sum, modern Subarus are stellar light-duty off-roaders but waiting on Subaru to take on the 4x4 world head on is a waste of time.

That said, the obvious 4x4 markets are US and Australia. And even globally, Subaru's 2016 net profit of 3.2 billion USD was much greater than Suzuki's, which was under 1.5 bln USD.

I am glad Suzuki is doing well overall. A 1.5 bln USD net profit is not bad at all. It is actually impressive as it comes from small cars.

Obviously, there is practically no overlap not only in vehicles, but also in markets.

While we are on it, Mitsubishi is another Japanese company that used to be in the same boat as Subaru and Suzuki in the US. It still lingers around, selling 100,000 in 2017, which is but a fraction of Subaru's 650,000 (btw, Ford sold 900,000+ F-series full size trucks in 2017).

I am surprised Subaru sold as much as Suzuki and Mitsubishi combined already in 2006 when it was considered a quirky, niche car-maker. Apparently, Mitsubishi peaked in the early 2000s, selling 300-350,000 per year, then nosedived in 2004 and never recovered. Suzuki actually only cracked 100,000 twice, 2005-6.

Subaru was solidly above 100,000 already in 1978 but while it toyed with 200,000 a couple of times, really had issues stabilizing around that number till the 2000s and, of course, its march north of 200,000 units per year only started when the 2009 Foz and the 2010 Outback kicked off the new Subaru era.